Author Profile

Chris Hartpence a.k.a. Velociryx Velociryx is an economist, helpdesk analyst, and author. It is in the latter capacity that he may be best known to Alpha Centauri fans as author of what has been widely described as a definitive guide to for the game's expansion pack, Alien Crossfire. His other writing credits include Five Days in May, a horror fiction novel favourably reviewed by The New York Times.

The fourth direct incarnation of the Civilization series in hand, this Civer wants to believe in a brighter future for the franchise after what he calls the disaster that was Civilization III.

This is his detailed report. (ACS)

PART 1: First Impressions (Page 1/2)

First impressions are important in most things, and computer games are no exception. Make a solid first impression on me, and I'm vastly more inclined to overlook weak spots or contradictions in your design.

Give me choices, and make them mean something (or at least have the good graces to make me feel like they do), and it'll do a lot to soothe the savage beast that tends to rear his evil head when there's just something wonky or rediculous woven into the fabric of the game. Give me attention to detail and don't skimp on the small stuff, and I'll be far less likely to bite your head off when the game engine does something absurdly unexpected.

I, with my less-than-optimal desktop rig, dodged a great many of the initial setup bullets I've read in the "horror stories" section of the Apolyton CivIV forums (much to my relief!). The installation ran smoothly, and the game started without a hitch, upon the completion of the customary system restart, so we were off and running in that regard. The Intro Movie was impressive, even if it would only run in two-second intervals, before pausing for perhaps half a second. A minor gripe, which could be at least partly the fault of my less-than-maxed-out system. I'm willing to chalk it up to that and let it go, for one reason alone.

I want to believe.

Once we were through that, the game start menu came up beautifully, and the music had the same effect on me that [Alpha Centauri (SMAC)]'s introductary scene still has on me, to this day....I'm not sure there are words to describe it, but I assure you that it's a good feeling, and this makes only the second computer game to ever have that impact.

Good sign. Equally good was the fact that before the game even begins, you're greeted with a staggering array of choices. I like choices.

Choices are good things, and I get to make a number of them before I even start playing. Once again, the types of choices and the manner in which they're presented to me remind me of SMAC, and my fondness grows.

At first I am taken somewhat aback by the cartoonishness of the leaders who stand and greet me in various ways as I scroll through the list of nations I can opt to lead, but despite that--and perhaps in part, because of it--I find myself laughing at some of their antics (note to game designers everywhere: This is a perfect example of something I didn't like at first glance winning me over on account of the attention to detail!)

Selected my world type, and the various parameters I wanted to play in, and got treated to a monologue by none other than Mr. Spock! Nice touch, and interesting enough that I kept right on listening, even though the world was ready to greet me before his speech was even half done....and I'll probably do that again, too, cos the artwork is great!

And then, one little click, and I am transported to Earth, 4000 BC, and the dawning of the Egyptian civilization....

PART 1: Rinse and Repeat (Page 2/2)

I did not finish my first game, and I'll tell you why.

I was charged with the task of writing a review of CivIV. To do that, and to do it in a timely manner, I do not have the luxury of sitting down for hours on end and playing fifty or so games through to completion (not if I want to keep my job, get some sleep now and then, and stay sufficiently on my new wife's good side that she will continue to indulge me some Civ-Time, in any case!). So...my first "minigame" of Civ lasted up until the dawning of the Classical Era, and what a blast it was!

I found myself on a continent, hemmed in by two strong rivals (the Japanese to my west, and the Rus to my east), having to contend with that, and without fully understanding how the various sub-systems in the game all worked together. It made for one nailbiting experience, I can assure you, culminating in my decision to attack the Japanese to gain additional lands. I didn't fully appreciate the mechanics of the new combat system, and so divided my attack force, hitting two of their cities in the same turn (with approximately six units each). This was an unmitigated disaster, and I found myself scrambling to fend them off after I lost my entire army in a pair of attacks which did scant damage.

The A[rtifical] I[ntelligence (AI)] responded well (better than any AI I've seen in this type of game, kudos to Soren!), invading my territory with all manner of units, keeping enough of them together to present a credible threat in the south, and stripping my terrain enhancements away like vultures. It took decades to recover, but in the end, we beat them back, fought them to a stalemate, and eventually, took the two cities I had my sights set on. Due to our relative positions on the continent, this put me in the driver's seat, and when the first minigame ended, I was ranked second (of seven) in the world. Not bad, and I enjoyed being taken by surprise at the new combat system!

All through the first minigame, I found myself arriving at branches in the decision tree, selecting one, and thinking to myself, "oh, oh! next time around, I'll try it this way!" and that's a very good feeling. Choice again, and there's plenty of it. Want an example of what I mean? Try this on for size:

By now, most everybody is aware that the tech tree in CivIV is...not exactly non-linear, but rather....multi-linear, with a variety of paths to get to the same end result. This is an excellent design decision, and it spawns a variety of interesting choices and decisions, which is truly what lies at the heart and soul of games of this type.

Now, I'm certain that as I get more games under my belt, I'll begin to drift toward one or two of the tech routes as "favorites" and begin to discern various strengths and weaknesses among them, but the point is...they exist. This, in and of itself is an enormous departure from all other Civ variants, and does an even better job than SMAC at providing interesting tech beelines and strategic choicies.

I like it, but that's not really where I was going. My original intent was to give you an example of the ways in which that array of choices expresses itself throughout the fabric of the game. Take Wonders, for example. Big, powerful, impressive wonders (complete with Wonder Movies, yay!)...everybody likes 'em, right? So you'd think that, at first glance, the Industrious Civ Trait is at a huge advantage with regards to their construction, given their whopping 50% bonus when constructing such things.

And...you would be wrong. Yes, they get a healthy bonus when building wonders, but it's not insurmountable, by any means! That's because there are a whole host of alternate methodologies of getting a bonus for yourself, even if your Civ-of-Choice doesn't have an industrious bone in its body!

For example:

• A city founded in the heart of a forest can chop its way to greatness (remove forest, gain 30 hammers)...careful with this...forests provide health benefits to your people, and once they're gone, there's no replanting...still, if you need to speed build something big...it's an option.
• Slavery Civic - hearkens back to despotism in CivIII....need a build boost? Get a city with good food production and a Grainary, choose this Civic, and sacrifice some of the natives to the cause.
• Certain wonders see their costs reduced by virtue of access to various natural resources (stone, marble, etc). Very handy, if you stumble across the needed resource.
• Great People - Industrious Civs might be good at big building projects, but all it takes is one single Great Engineer to pull the rug right out from under them...and there are other Civ Traits (and civics) out there that increase the probability of your getting one of these.

So what's that? Five completely different methodologies outlined for building Wonders...that's fantastic! (and there are probably more lurking about, but c'mon...give me a break here...this is only my first day with the game!) If the choice only ran as deep as building wonders and winding your way up the tech tree, I would say that it wasn't enough to make the game truly great, but that does not appear to be the case. My "first impression" (hearkening back to the first few lines of this review, and bringing this segment full circle) is that the game is deep, and subtle, and full of challenge and promise. This impression is counter-balanced somewhat by my experiences with CivIII. I recall that when I first began playing that title, I was bedazzled for about a week, and then the bloom was off the rose, and I was bitterly disappointed.

So much so, in fact, that [developer] Firaxis [Games] lost me as a customer. Not that this fact kept them up late at night with worry, I am sure, but it is true nonetheless....after CivIII, I was done with them. The franchise was headed in the wrong direction, the game was deeply, perhaps even fatally flawed, and there was no band-aid fix that was going to pass muster.

A top-to-bottom redesign was in order. Half measures just weren't getting it done. Now, I grant you...I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this game, but two things are true so far:

1. What I've seen so far, I like very much, and I'm excited about the possibilities.
2. All day long at work today, I've been watching the clock...counting down the hours until I can get in my car, get home, and go play some more Civ.

From a guy who had sworn off of Firaxis games after the disaster that was CivIII, I'd say that's a fairly dramatic turnaround. Again, we're still on the honeymoon, as it were, but so far, color me impressed.

Check out Part 2 of Velociryx' Civ4 Review.